"I AM THINE, O LORD"

"Let us draw near with a true heart…" (Heb. 10.22)

The song suggests several things that are necessary to draw nearer to God.
I. says that we need to have faith
"I am Thine, O Lord; I have heard Thy voice, And it told Thy love to me,
But I long to rise in the arms of faith, And be closer drawn to Thee."
A. We hear God’s voice speaking to us through His revelation to mankind,
B. The scriptures tell us of His great love to us
C. And as a result of learning about the great love of God as revealed in the scriptures, we can have
faith in Him:
II. The second says that we need grace
"Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord, By the power of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, And my will be lost in Thine."
A. In order to be consecrated to the Lord’s service, we cannot do it solely by ourselves; we need the
power of God’s grace to save us from sin
B. As a result of His grace, we can look up with a steadfast hope
C. However, in order to benefit from God’s grace and have this hope, we must have the attitude that
our will be lost in His
III. The third says that we need prayer
"O the pure delight of a single hour That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend."
A. Just as we need to listen to God speak to us by reading His word, so we need to speak with God
by going before His throne in prayer through Christ
B. Kneeling in prayer suggests not so much the physical posture of the body, but the spiritual
posture of the heart, coming to God in humility, just as lifting up hands suggests the attitude of
holiness and purity
C. And when we come before the throne in prayer with this kind of attitude, we can commune with
God as friend to friend
IV. The fourth says that we need to keep our eyes on heaven
"There are depths of love that I cannot know Till I cross the narrow sea;
There are heights of joy that I may not reach Till I rest in peace with Thee."
A. Yes, we can benefit from God’s love now, but the complete depth of it passes knowledge
B. And we can certainly rejoice in the Lord as we live here on earth
C. Yet, there are heights of joy that we cannot reach until we cross the narrow sea and rest in peace
with the Lord in heaven
I shall never know the complete fullness of God’s blessings to us until after this life is over. But even
now, I should constantly be asking God to "Draw me nearer, because ‘I Am Thine, O Lord.’"